Works By Herbert Marcuse
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American
philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...
,
social critic Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in particular with respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The orig ...
, and
political theorist A political theorist is someone who engages in constructing or evaluating political theory, including political philosophy. Theorists may be academics or independent scholars. Here the most notable political theorists are categorized by their ...
, associated with the
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
of
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
. Born in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, Marcuse studied at the
Humboldt University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...
and then at
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
, where he received his PhD. He was a prominent figure in the Frankfurt-based
Institute for Social Research The Institute for Social Research (german: Institut für Sozialforschung, IfS) is a research organization for sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Currently a part ...
– what later became known as the
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
. He was married to Sophie Wertheim (1924–1951), Inge Neumann (1955–1973), and Erica Sherover (1976–1979). In his written works, he criticized
capitalism Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for Profit (economics), profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, pric ...
, modern technology,
Soviet Communism The ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Bolshevist Marxism–Leninism, an ideology of a centralised command economy with a vanguardist one-party state to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet Union's ...
and
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, arguing that they represent new forms of social control. Between 1943 and 1950, Marcuse worked in US government service for the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(predecessor of the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
) where he criticized the
ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union The ideology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) was Bolshevist Marxism–Leninism, an ideology of a centralised command economy with a vanguardist one-party state to realise the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Soviet Union's ...
in the book '' Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis'' (1958). In the 1960s and the 1970s he became known as the preeminent theorist of the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
and the student movements of
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, France, and the United States; some consider him "the Father of the New Left". His best-known works are ''
Eros and Civilization ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955; second edition, 1966) is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the t ...
'' (1955) and ''
One-Dimensional Man ''One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society'' is a 1964 book by the philosopher and critical theorist Herbert Marcuse, in which the author offers a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the ...
'' (1964). His
Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
scholarship inspired many radical intellectuals and political activists in the 1960s and 1970s, both in the United States and internationally.


Biography


Early years

Herbert Marcuse was born July 19, 1898, in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, to Carl Marcuse and Gertrud Kreslawsky. Marcuse's family was a German upper-middle-class Jewish family that was well integrated into German society. Marcuse's formal education began at Mommsen Gymnasium and continued at the Kaiserin-Augusta Gymnasium in Charlottenburg from 1911 to 1916. In 1916, he was drafted into the
German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...
, but only worked in horse stables in Berlin during
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. He then became a member of a
Soldiers' Council A workers' council or labor council is a form of political and economic organization in which a workplace or municipality is governed by a council made up of workers or their elected delegates. The workers within each council decide on what thei ...
that participated in the aborted
socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...
Spartacist uprising The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising (), was a general strike and the accompanying armed struggles that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the November Revolutio ...
. In 1919 he attended Humboldt University in Berlin, taking classes for four semesters. In 1920 he transferred to the University of Freiburg to concentrate on German literature, philosophy, politics, and economics. He completed his Ph.D. thesis at the
University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...
in 1922 on the German ''
Künstlerroman A ''Künstlerroman'' (; plural ''-ane''), meaning "artist's novel" in English, is a narrative about an artist's growth to maturity.Werlock, James P. (2010The Facts on File companion to the American short story Volume 2, p.387 It could be classifie ...
'', after which he moved back to Berlin, where he worked in publishing. Two years later he married Sophie Wertheim, a mathematician. He returned to
Freiburg Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...
in 1928 to study with
Edmund Husserl , thesis1_title = Beiträge zur Variationsrechnung (Contributions to the Calculus of Variations) , thesis1_url = https://fedora.phaidra.univie.ac.at/fedora/get/o:58535/bdef:Book/view , thesis1_year = 1883 , thesis2_title ...
and write a
habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...
with
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
, which was published in 1932 as ''
Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity ''Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity'' (german: Hegels Ontologie und die Grundlegung einer Theorie der Geschichtlichkeit) is a 1932 book about the philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and his theory of historicity by the philosoph ...
'' (''Hegels Ontologie und die Theorie der Geschichtlichkeit''). This study was written in the context of the Hegel renaissance that was taking place in Europe with an emphasis on Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's ontology of life and history, idealist theory of spirit and dialectic.


Emigration to the United States

In 1932 Marcuse stopped working with Heidegger, who later joined the Nazi Party in 1933. Marcuse understood that he would not qualify as a professor under the Nazi regime as the Nazis seized power and anti-Semitism increased. Marcuse was then hired to work in the Institute of Social Research in the Frankfurt School. The Institute deposited their endowment in Holland in anticipation of the Nazi takeover, so Marcuse never got to actually work in the Frankfurt School. Marcuse began his work with the Institute in Geneva, where a branch office was formed. While a member of the Frankfurt School (also known as the Institute of Social Research), Marcuse developed a model for critical social theory, created a theory of the new stage of state and monopoly capitalism, described the relationships between philosophy, social theory, and cultural criticism, and provided an analysis and critique of German ''National Socialism''. Marcuse worked closely with critical theorists while at the institute. After leaving Germany for Switzerland in May 1933, Marcuse emigrated to the United States in June 1934. Marcuse served at the Institute's Columbia University branch from 1934 through 1942. He traveled to Washington, D.C., in 1942, to work for the Office of War Information, afterwards the Office of Strategic Services. Marcuse then went on to teach at Brandeis University and the University of California, San Diego later in his career. In 1940, he became a US citizen and resided in the country until his death in 1979. Although he never returned to Germany to live, he remained one of the major theorists associated with the Frankfurt School, along with Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno (among others). In 1940 he published ''Reason and Revolution'', a dialectical work studying G. W. F. Hegel and Karl Marx.


World War II

During World War II, Marcuse first worked for the US Office of War Information (OWI) on anti-Nazi propaganda projects. In 1943, he transferred to the
Research and Analysis Branch The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is an intelligence agency in the United States Department of State. Its central mission is to provide all-source intelligence and analysis in support of U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy. INR is t ...
of the
Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS), the precursor to the
Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
. Directed by the Harvard historian William L. Langer, the Research and Analysis (R & A) Branch was the largest American research institution in the first half of the twentieth century. At its zenith between 1943 and 1945, it employed over twelve hundred, four hundred of whom were stationed abroad. In many respects, it was the site where post-World War II American social science was born, with protégés of some of the most esteemed American university professors, as well as numerous European intellectual émigrés, in its ranks. These men comprised the "theoretical brain trust" of the American war machine, which, according to its founder, William J. Donovan, would function as a "final clearinghouse" for the secret services. Although this group did not determine war strategy or tactics, it would be able to assemble, organize, analyze, and filter the immense flow of military information directed toward Washington, thanks to the unique capacity of the gathered specialists to interpret the relevant sources. In March 1943, Marcuse joined fellow Frankfurt School scholar Franz Neumann in R & A's Central European Section as senior analyst; there he rapidly established himself as "the leading analyst on Germany". After the dissolution of the OSS in 1945, Marcuse was employed by the US Department of State as head of the Central European section, becoming an intelligence analyst of Nazism. A compilation of Marcuse's reports was published in '' Secret Reports on Nazi Germany: The Frankfurt School Contribution to the War Effort'' (2013). He retired after the death of his first wife in 1951.


Post-war

Marcuse first began his teaching career as a political theorist at Columbia University, then at Harvard University in 1952. Marcuse worked at Brandeis University from 1954 to 1965, then at the University of California San Diego from 1965 to 1970. It was during his time at Brandeis that he wrote his most famous work, ''
One-Dimensional Man ''One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society'' is a 1964 book by the philosopher and critical theorist Herbert Marcuse, in which the author offers a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the ...
'' (1964). Marcuse was a friend and collaborator of the political sociologist Barrington Moore Jr. and of the political philosopher
Robert Paul Wolff Robert Paul Wolff (born December 27, 1933) is an American political philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Wolff has written widely on topics in political philosophy such as Marxism, tolerance (again ...
, and also a friend of the Columbia University sociology professor C. Wright Mills, one of the founders of the
New Left The New Left was a broad political movement mainly in the 1960s and 1970s consisting of activists in the Western world who campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, environmentalism, feminism, gay rights, g ...
movement. In his "Introduction" to ''One-Dimensional Man'', Marcuse wrote, "I should like to emphasize the vital importance of the work of C. Wright Mills." In the post-war period, Marcuse rejected the theory of
class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...
and the Marxist concern with labor, instead claiming, according to Leszek Kołakowski, that since "all questions of material existence have been solved, moral commands and prohibitions are no longer relevant." He regarded the realization of man's erotic nature as the true liberation of humanity, which inspired the utopias of Jerry Rubin and others. Marcuse's critiques of capitalist society (especially his 1955 synthesis of Marx and Sigmund Freud, ''
Eros and Civilization ''Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955; second edition, 1966) is a book by the German philosopher and social critic Herbert Marcuse, in which the author proposes a non-repressive society, attempts a synthesis of the t ...
'', and his 1964 book ''
One-Dimensional Man ''One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society'' is a 1964 book by the philosopher and critical theorist Herbert Marcuse, in which the author offers a wide-ranging critique of both contemporary capitalism and the ...
'') resonated with the concerns of the student movement in the 1960s. Because of his willingness to speak at student protests and his essay " Repressive Tolerance" (1965), Marcuse soon became known in the media as "Father of the New Left." Contending that the students of the sixties were not waiting for the publication of his work to act, Marcuse brushed the media's branding of him as "Father of the New Left" aside lightly, saying "It would have been better to call me not the father, but the grandfather, of the New Left." His work strongly influenced intellectual discourse on
popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
and scholarly popular culture studies. He had many speaking engagements in the US and Western Bloc in the late 1960s and 1970s. He became a close friend and inspirer of the French philosopher
André Gorz André Gorz (né Gerhart Hirsch ; 9 February 1923 – 22 September 2007), more commonly known by his pen names Gérard Horst and Michel Bosquet , was an Austrian and French social philosopher and journalist and critic of work. He co-founded ...
. Marcuse defended the arrested East German dissident Rudolf Bahro (author of ''Die Alternative: Zur Kritik des real existierenden Sozialismus'' rans., ''The Alternative in Eastern Europe'', discussing in a 1979 essay Bahro's theories of "change from within."


Marriages

Marcuse married three times. His first wife was mathematician Sophie Wertheim (1901–1951), whom he married in 1924 and had his first son Peter with in 1928. Before emigrating to New York in 1934, they resided in Freiburg, Berlin, Geneva, and Paris. They lived in Los Angeles/Santa Monica and Washington, D.C. in the 1930s and 1940s. In 1951 Sophie Wertheim passed away due to cancer. He would later marry Inge Neumann (1914–1973), the widow of his close friend Franz Neumann (1900–1954). After his second wife Inge died in 1973, Marcuse married Erica Sherover (1938–1988), a former graduate student at the University of California, in 1976.


Children

In his first marriage with Sophie Wertheim, they had one son Peter Marcuse born (1928). Peter Marcuse was a professor emeritus of urban planning at Columbia University located in New York. Although Marcuse didn't have any children with Inge Neumann Marcuse, he helped raise her two sons, Thomas Neumann and Michael Neumann. Thomas (now Osha) is a Berkeley-based writer, activist, lawyer, and muralist. Michael works as a philosophy professor at Trent University in Toronto. Marcuse's granddaughter is the novelist Irene Marcuse and his grandson, Harold Marcuse, is a professor of history at the University of California, Santa Barbara.


Death

On July 29, 1979, ten days after his eighty-first birthday, Marcuse died after suffering a
stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...
during his trip to Germany. He had just finished speaking at the Frankfurt ''Römerberggespräche'', and was on his way to the Max Planck Institute for the Study of the Scientific-Technical World in Starnberg, on invitation from second-generation Frankfurt School theorist
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
. In 2003, after his ashes were rediscovered in the United States, they were buried in the Dorotheenstädtischer cemetery in Berlin.


Philosophy and views

Marcuse's concept of repressive desublimation, which has become well-known, refers to his argument that postwar mass culture, with its profusion of sexual provocations, serves to reinforce political repression. If people are preoccupied with inauthentic sexual stimulation, their political energy will be "desublimated"; instead of acting constructively to change the world, they remain repressed and uncritical. Marcuse advanced the prewar thinking of critical theory toward a critical account of the "one-dimensional" nature of bourgeois life in Europe and America. His thinking could, therefore, also be considered an advance of the concerns of earlier liberal critics such as David Riesman. Two aspects of Marcuse's work are of particular importance, first, his use of language more familiar from the critique of Soviet or Nazi regimes to characterize developments in the advanced industrial world; and second, his grounding of critical theory in a particular use of psychoanalytic thought.


Marcuse's early "Heideggerian Marxism"

During his years in Freiburg, Marcuse wrote a series of essays that explored the possibility of synthesizing Marxism and Heidegger's fundamental ontology, as begun in the latter's work ''Being and Time'' (1927). This early interest in Heidegger followed Marcuse's demand for "concrete philosophy," which, he declared in 1928, "concerns itself with the truth of contemporaneous human existence." These words were directed against the neo-Kantianism of the mainstream, and against both the revisionist and orthodox Marxist alternatives, in which the subjectivity of the individual played little role. Though Marcuse quickly distanced himself from Heidegger following Heidegger's endorsement of Nazism, thinkers such as
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
have suggested that an understanding of Marcuse's later thinking demands an appreciation of his early Heideggerian influence.


Marcuse and Capitalism

Marcuse's analysis of capitalism derives partially from one of Karl Marx's main concepts: Objectification, which under capitalism becomes Alienation. Marx believed that capitalism was exploiting humans; that by producing objects of a certain character, laborers became alienated and this ultimately dehumanized them into functional objects themselves. Marcuse took this belief and expanded it. He argued that capitalism and industrialization pushed laborers so hard that they began to see themselves as extensions of the objects they were producing. At the beginning of ''One-Dimensional Man'' Marcuse writes, "The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment," meaning that under capitalism (in consumer society), humans become extensions of the commodities that they buy, thus making commodities extensions of people's minds and bodies. Affluent mass technological societies, he argues, are controlled and manipulated. In societies based upon mass production and mass distribution, the individual worker has become merely a consumer of its commodities and entire commodified way of life. Modern capitalism has created false needs and false consciousness geared to the consumption of
commodities In economics, a commodity is an economic good, usually a resource, that has full or substantial fungibility: that is, the market treats instances of the good as equivalent or nearly so with no regard to who produced them. The price of a comm ...
: it locks one-dimensional man into the one-dimensional society which produced the need for people to recognize themselves in their commodities. The very mechanism that ties the individual to his society has changed, and social control is anchored in the new needs that it has produced. Most important of all, the pressure of consumerism has led to the total integration of the working class into the capitalist system. Its political parties and trade unions have become thoroughly bureaucratized and the power of negative thinking or critical reflection has rapidly declined. The working class is no longer a potentially subversive force capable of bringing about revolutionary change. Professor Marcuse evolved a theory over the years that stated modern technology is repressive naturally. He believed that in both capitalist and communist societies, workers did not question the manner in which they lived due to the mechanism of repression of technological advances. The use of technology allowed people to not be aware of what is occurring around them such as the fact that they might soon be out of their jobs because these technologies are committing their same jobs quicker and cheaper. He claimed the modern-day workers were not as rebellious as before during the Karl Marx era (19th century). They just freely conformed to the system they were under for the sake of satisfying their needs and survival. Since they had conformed, the revolution that Marcuse felt was necessary by the people never happened. As a result, rather than looking to the workers as the revolutionary vanguard, Marcuse put his faith in an alliance between radical intellectuals and those groups not yet integrated into one-dimensional society, the socially marginalized, the substratum of the outcasts and outsiders, the exploited and persecuted of other ethnicities and other colors, the unemployed and the unemployable. These were the people whose standards of living demanded the ending of intolerable conditions and institutions and whose resistance to one-dimensional society would not be diverted by the system. Their opposition was revolutionary even if their consciousness was not.


The New Left and radical politics

Many radical scholars and activists were influenced by Marcuse, such as
Norman O. Brown Norman Oliver Brown (September 25, 1913 – October 2, 2002) was an American scholar, writer, and social philosopher. Beginning as a classical scholar, his later work branched into wide-ranging, erudite, and intellectually sophisticated cons ...
, Angela Davis,
Charles J. Moore Charles J. Moore is an oceanographer and boat captain known for articles that recently brought attention to the ' Great Pacific Garbage Patch', an area of the Pacific Ocean strewn with floating plastic debris caught in a gyre. Great Pacific Garb ...
,
Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...
, Rudi Dutschke, and Robert M. Young (see the List of Scholars and Activists link below). Among those who critiqued him from the left were Marxist-humanist Raya Dunayevskaya, fellow German emigre Paul Mattick, both of whom subjected ''One-Dimensional Man'' to a Marxist critique, and Noam Chomsky, who knew and liked Marcuse "but thought very little of his work." Marcuse's 1965 essay " Repressive Tolerance", in which he claimed capitalist democracies can have totalitarian aspects, has been criticized by conservatives. Marcuse argues that genuine tolerance does not permit support for "repression", since doing so ensures that marginalized voices will remain unheard. He characterizes tolerance of repressive speech as "inauthentic". Instead, he advocates a form of tolerance that is intolerant of repressive (namely right-wing) political movements: Marcuse later expressed his radical ideas through three pieces of writing. He wrote '' An Essay on Liberation'' in 1969, in which he celebrated liberation movements such as those in Vietnam, which inspired many radicals. In 1972 he wrote '' Counterrevolution and Revolt'', which argues that the hopes of the 1960s were facing a counterrevolution from the right. After Brandeis denied the renewal of his teaching contract in 1965, Marcuse taught at the University of California San Diego. In 1968, California Governor
Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...
and other conservatives objected to his reappointment, but the university decided to let his contract run until 1970. He devoted the rest of his life to teaching, writing and giving lectures around the world. His efforts brought him attention from the media, which claimed that he openly advocated violence, although he often clarified that only "violence of defense" could be appropriate, not "violence of aggression". He continued to promote Marxian theory, with some of his students helping to spread his ideas. He published his final work ''
The Aesthetic Dimension ''The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics'' (german: Die Permanenz der Kunst: Wider eine bestimmte marxistische Ästhetik) is a 1977 book on aesthetics by the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the author provides an ...
'' in 1979 on the role of art in the process of what he termed "emancipation" from bourgeois society.


Marcuse and Feminism

Marcuse felt that societal reform may be found among the outcast of society, thus he supported movements such as the Feminist movement. Marcuse was particularly concerned with Feminism near the end of his life, for reasons he explained in a public lecture ''Marxism and Feminism'' in 1974. Many themes and ambitions from Marcuse's work found embodiment in socialist feminism, especially ideas developed in ''Eros and Civilization''. It involved changes not only in the structural power relations of society, but in the instinctual drives of individual human beings. Although he regarded women's participation in the labor force as positive, and a necessary condition for women's liberation, Marcuse did not consider it sufficient for true freedom. He hoped for a shift in moral values away from aggressive and masculine qualities towards feminine ones.
Jessica Benjamin Jessica Benjamin is a psychoanalyst known for her contributions to psychoanalysis and social thought. She is currently a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City where she is on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Psychology Prog ...
and Nancy Chodorow believed that Marcuse's reliance on Freud's drive theory as the source of the desire for societal change is inadequate for both philosophers since he fails to account for the individual's intersubjective growth. Nina Power defends Marcuse against the charge of gender essentialism. Margaret Cerullo was wary of the eroticization of female intellect.


Criticism

Leszek Kołakowski described Marcuse's views as essentially anti-Marxist, in that they ignored Marx's critique of Hegel and discarded the historical theory of
class struggle Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...
entirely in favor of an inverted Freudian reading of human history where all social rules could and should be discarded to create a "New World of Happiness." Kołakowski concluded that Marcuse's ideal society "is to be ruled despotically by an enlightened group hohave realized in themselves the unity of ''Logos'' and Eros, and thrown off the vexatious authority of logic, mathematics, and the empirical sciences." The philosopher
Alasdair MacIntyre Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (; born 12 January 1929) is a Scottish-American philosopher who has contributed to moral and political philosophy as well as history of philosophy and theology. MacIntyre's '' After Virtue'' (1981) is one of the most ...
asserted that Marcuse falsely assumed consumers were completely passive, uncritically responding to corporate advertising. MacIntyre frankly opposed Marcuse. "It will be my crucial contention in this book," MacIntyre stated, "that almost all of Marcuse's key positions are false. For example, Marcuse was not an orthodox Marxist. Like many of the Frankfurt School, Marcuse wrote of "
critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
" not of "Marxism" and MacIntyre notes a similarity in this to the Right Hegelians, whom Marx attacked. Hence, MacIntyre proposed that Marcuse be regarded as "a pre-Marxist thinker". According to MacIntyre, Marcuse's assumptions about advanced
industrial society In sociology, industrial society is a society driven by the use of technology and machinery to enable mass production, supporting a large population with a high capacity for division of labour. Such a structure developed in the Western world i ...
were wrong in whole and in part. "Marcuse," concluded MacIntyre, "invokes the great names of freedom and reason while betraying their substance at every important point."


Legacy

Herbert Marcuse appealed to students of the New Left through his emphasis on the power of critical thought and his vision of total human emancipation and a non-repressive civilization. He supported students he felt were subject to the pressures of a commodifying system, and has been regarded as an inspirational intellectual leader. He is also considered among the most influential of the Frankfurt School critical theorists on American culture, due to his studies on student and counter-cultural movements on the 1960s. The legacy of the 1960s, of which Marcuse was a vital part, lives on, and the
great refusal The great refusal (Italian: ''il gran rifiuto'') is the error attributed in Dante's ''Inferno'' to one of the souls found trapped aimlessly at the Vestibule of Hell. The phrase is usually believed to refer to Pope Celestine V and his laying down ...
is still practiced by oppositional groups and individuals. Marcuse's thought remains influential in the 21st century. In the introduction to an issue of
New Political Science The Caucus for a New Political Science (CNPS) was first founded in 1967 as a caucus, and then a formal section, within the American Political Science Association (APSA). APSA is the official professional organization of political scientists in the ...
dedicated to Marcuse, Robert Kirsch and Sarah Surak described his influence as, "alive and well, vibrant across multiple fields of inquiry across many areas of social relations." Marcuse's concept of repressive tolerance attracted renewed attention following the 9/11 attacks. Repressive tolerance is also relevant to 21st century campus protests and the Black Lives Matter movement. A fictional representation of Herbert Marcuse appears in the Coen brothers film '' Hail, Caesar!'' played by John Bluthal. While working as a graduate fellow under Marcuse, Lowell Bergman (who three decades later was portrayed by
Al Pacino Alfredo James Pacino (; ; born April 25, 1940) is an American actor. Considered one of the most influential actors of the 20th century, he has received numerous accolades: including an Academy Award, two Tony Awards, and two Primetime Emmy ...
in The Insider (film)) served as a “de facto bodyguard” for the philosopher during a period when Marcuse was regularly receiving threats of physical violence.


Famous quotes

* "Art cannot change the world, but it can contribute to changing the consciousness and drives of the men and women who could change the world." * "The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one's own destruction, has become a “biological” need." * "One-dimensional thought is systematically promoted by the makers of politics and their purveyors of mass information. Their universe of discourse is populated by self-validating hypotheses which, incessantly and monopolistically repeated, become hypnotic definitions of dictations." * “The spontaneous reproduction of superimposed needs by the individual does not establish autonomy; it only testifies to the efficacy of the control.” * “Under the rule of a repressive whole, liberty can be made into a powerful instrument of domination.”


Bibliography

;Books * ''Hegel's Ontology and the Theory of Historicity'' (1932), originally written in German, in English 1987. * ''Studie über Autorität und Familie'' (1936) in German, republished 1987, 2005. Marcuse wrote just over 100 pages in this 900-page study. * '' Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory'' (1941) * '' Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud'' (1955) * '' Soviet Marxism: A Critical Analysis'' (1958) * '' One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society'' (1964) * ''
A Critique of Pure Tolerance ''A Critique of Pure Tolerance'' is a 1965 book by the philosopher Robert Paul Wolff, the sociologist Barrington Moore Jr., and the philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in which the authors discuss the political role of tolerance. Summary The book incl ...
'' (1965) Essay "Repressive Tolerance," with additional essays by Robert Paul Wolff and Barrington Moore Jr. * ''Negations: Essays in Critical Theory'' (1968) * '' An Essay on Liberation'' (1969) * ''Five Lectures'' (1969) * '' Counterrevolution and Revolt'' (1972) * '' The Aesthetic Dimension: Toward a Critique of Marxist Aesthetics'' (1978) ;Essays * Neue Quellen zur Grundlegung des Historischen Materialismus (1932) * Repressive Tolerance (1965) * Liberation (1969) * On the Problem of the Dialectic (1976) * Protosocialism and Late Capitalism: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis Based on Bahro's Analysis (1980)


Professionals Marcuse Influenced

* Angela Davis *
Jürgen Habermas Jürgen Habermas (, ; ; born 18 June 1929) is a German social theorist in the tradition of critical theory and pragmatism. His work addresses communicative rationality and the public sphere. Associated with the Frankfurt School, Habermas's wor ...
* Douglas Kellner *
Abbie Hoffman Abbot Howard "Abbie" Hoffman (November 30, 1936 – April 12, 1989) was an American political and social activist who co-founded the Youth International Party ("Yippies") and was a member of the Chicago Seven. He was also a leading proponen ...
*
Norman O. Brown Norman Oliver Brown (September 25, 1913 – October 2, 2002) was an American scholar, writer, and social philosopher. Beginning as a classical scholar, his later work branched into wide-ranging, erudite, and intellectually sophisticated cons ...
* Lowell Bergman


See also

* ''
After Marcuse ''After Marcuse'' is an Australian television film. It stars Diane Craig, Penne Hackforth-Jones, and Grigor Taylor. Cast *Diane Craig as Liz *Penne Hackforth-Jones as Gillian *Grigor Taylor as Warren *David Whitney as Paul *Paul Mason as Laurenc ...
'' * Freudo-Marxism *
Frankfurt School The Frankfurt School (german: Frankfurter Schule) is a school of social theory and critical philosophy associated with the Institute for Social Research, at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1929. Founded in the Weimar Republic (1918–1933), dur ...
* Marxism * Socialism *
German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy a ...
*
Critical theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...
* Capitalism


References


Further reading


Herbert Marcuse

* John Abromeit and W. Mark Cobb, eds. (2004), ''Herbert Marcuse: A Critical Reader'', New York, London: Routledge. * Andrew Feenberg and William Leiss (2007), ''The Essential Marcuse: Selected Writings of Philosopher and Social Critic Herbert Marcuse'', Boston: Beacon Press. * ''Technology, War and Fascism. Collected papers of Herbert Marcuse, volume 1'' (London: Routledge 1998)


Criticism and analysis

* C. Fred Alford (1985), ''Science and Revenge of Nature: Marcuse and Habermas'', Gainesville: University of Florida Press. * Harold Bleich (1977), ''The Philosophy of Herbert Marcuse'', Washington: University Press of America. * Paul Breines (1970), ''Critical Interruptions: New Left Perspectives on Herbert Marcuse'', New York: Herder and Herder. * Douglas Kellner (1984), ''Herbert Marcuse and the Crisis of Marxism''. London: Macmillan. . * Paul Mattick (1972), ''Critique of Marcuse: One-dimensional man in class society'' Merlin Press * Alain Martineau (1986). Herbert Marcuse's Utopia, Harvest House, Montreal. * . * . * Eliseo Vivas (1971), ''Contra Marcuse'', Arlington House, New Rochelle. *Andrew T. Lamas, Todd Wolfson, and Peter N. Funke, eds (2017),
The Great Refusal: Herbert Marcuse and Contemporary Social Movements
'. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2017. *
Kurt H. Wolff Kurt Heinrich Wolff (May 20, 1912 – September 14, 2003) was a German-born American sociologist. A major contributor to the sociology of knowledge and to qualitative and phenomenological approaches in sociology, he also translated from German a ...
and
Barrington Moore, Jr. Barrington Moore Jr. (12 May 1913 – 16 October 2005) was an American political sociology, political sociologist, and the son of forester Barrington Moore, Sr., Barrington Moore. He is well-known for his ''Social Origins of Dictatorship an ...
, eds (1967), ''The Critical Spirit. Essays in honor of Herbert Marcuse''. Beacon Press, Boston. * J. Michael Tilley (2011). "Herbert Marcuse: Social Critique, Haecker and Kierkegaardian Individualism" in ''Kierkegaard's Influence on Social-Political Thought'' edited by Jon Stewart.


General

* Anthony Elliott and Larry Ray (2003), Key Contemporary Social Theorists. * Charles Lemert (2010), Social Theory: the Multicultural and Classic Readings. * Douglas Mann (2008), A Survey of Modern Social Theory. * Noel Parker and Stuart Sim (1997), A-Z Guide to Modern Social and Political Theorist *"Herbert Marcuse , American philosopher". ''Encyclopedia Britannica''. Retrieved 2021-10-23


External links


Comprehensive 'Official' Herbert Marcuse Website
by one of Marcuse's grandsons, with full bibliographies of primary and secondary works, and full texts of many important works
International Herbert Marcuse Society website


at the Marxists Internet Archive
Herbert Marcuse Archive
by Herbert Marcuse Association * from worldsocialism.org

(detailed biography and essays, by Douglas Kellner). * Douglas Kellner
"Herbert Marcuse"
* Bernard Stiegler
"Spirit, Capitalism, and Superego"

"Herbert Marcuse Biography Indonesian"
at aprillins.com * Azurmendi, J. 1969
Pentsalaria eta eragina
'' Jakin'', 35: 3–16.
Goodbye Comrade M
obituary of Marcuse by David Widgery, ''Socialist Review'' (September 1979).
Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Herbert Marcuse {{DEFAULTSORT:Marcuse, Herbert 1898 births 1979 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American non-fiction writers 20th-century German philosophers 20th-century German writers American anti-capitalists American anti-fascists American environmentalists American feminists American male non-fiction writers American Marxists American sociologists Anti-consumerists Anti-Stalinist left Brandeis University faculty Burials at the Dorotheenstadt Cemetery Columbia University faculty Communication scholars Critics of work and the work ethic Ecofeminists Frankfurt School German anti-capitalists German anti-fascists German communists German environmentalists German feminists German male writers German Marxists German socialists German sociologists Jewish American social scientists Jewish anti-fascists Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States Jewish philosophers Jewish sociologists Left-libertarians Libertarian socialists Male feminists Marxist humanists Marxist theorists New Left People from the Province of Brandenburg People of the Office of Strategic Services People of the United States Office of War Information Philosophers of technology Revolution theorists Social critics University of California, San Diego faculty University of Freiburg alumni Writers from Berlin Utopian studies scholars